The Christmas
Story Advent Coloring Book - "Print out these 24
coloring pages with quotations from Luke (first 15 pages)
and Matthew (last 9 pages) to reinforce the Christmas story.
Color and read one page per day from December 1st thru the
24th. Put them all together to make a booklet you can read
as a family on Christmas day! "

If you have not already done so, you will need to open an account.
The process to download one or several images is simple. When you
find an image you would like to download, click on it. Then click
on the button "Add to cart". Repeat this process as often
as you like. When you have selected all of the images you are interested
in downloading in a specific session, click on "Shopping Cart"
in the menu bar near the top of the page. Cost will indicate $0.00.
You will then be able to download the entire selection of images
you chose in a zip file and these will be in large format that you
can then format for your needs.

Good News
Cafe is a place where young adults seek to understand
the truths of our Catholic faith and support and witness to
each other so that we may grow in love of Christ, the Church,
and each other.

We enrich our minds by learning God's truth, our souls are
empowered through the power of the Spirit of Christ, and we
experience our Baptismal call to holiness through relationships
with one another and the one Church

"...a new literary magazine dedicated to providing a space
for young writers to engage the literary world from a Catholic
perspective. The magazine is committed to quality writing that
takes advantage of the religious, theological, philosophical,
artistic, cultural, and literary heritage of the Catholic Church
in order to inform and enrich contemporary literary culture. Dappled
Things pledges complete faithfulness to the teachings of the Catholic
Church as expressed by the Bishop of Rome and the Church's Magisterium."

I find the wonderful mix of fiction, poetry, essays, art, and photography
make of this magazine a delightful place to visit and rest a while...
And the quality of the works presented is indeed high.

ChristArt offers free
Christian clipart and art for Web sites and for print material.
There are certain conditions so read the terms of use.

One of the features on the site is quite innovative and and
could be fun to use in creating resources for your students.
Under the Clip
Art section of the site, there is a page called "My
Name". On that page you can write the name of one
your students in a form and simply click on "Create Image"
and the name you have written will be integrated in a graphic
that says "Name" loves Jesus. I have done this with
my first name in the graphic above. You could do that for
all of your students, and save the images to use on individualised
worksheets or any handout for that matter.

interparole-catholique-yvelines.cef.fr - This French Web site has all you need to build a beautifully illustrated
yearly liturgical calendar to color, cut ut and assemble with your
students. If you cannot read French, it would still be worthwhile
to use a an online translator to make out the meaning of the sections "Pourquoi
un calendrier liturgique ?" (Why a liturgical calendar)
and "Tableau
récapitulatif de l'année liturgique" (Summary table
of the liturgical year). Both of these provide useful and interesting
background information on how to help children understand the different
liturgical seasons and feast days and their meanings.

I was recently invited to take a look at http://www.educationforjustice.org.
I was quite impressed with the amount and quality of the resources
available on this Web site. The press release I include below gives
a good description of what it offers.

A small donation is normally requested to access most of the material
on the site, but upon request by email (see details in the press
release), you can obtain a 30 free trial period. I highly recommend
that you take advantage of this offer. It is well worth the small
effort required.

PRESS RELEASE:

Educational Website Offers Catholic Social Teaching Resources

Education for Justice (EfJ) is an online Catholic Social Teaching
resource library with thousands of pages of resources on more than
50 justice topics, such as poverty, peace, environmental issues,
and current events. All resources are based on Catholic social thought
and the statements of the Vatican and the U.S. bishops on current
issues are utilized in all materials.

The member-based website, which requests a small donation for use
of the site, is offering 30 days free for new member who would like
to try the website out. They can sign up simply by emailing efj@coc.org.

The Catholic News Service recently posted the following article
about EfJ in its News Briefs on April 3, 2006:

Web site applies Catholic social teaching to contemporary issues

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Those who wonder what the church has to say
about issues frequently in the news can get answers by searching
through a lot of church documents or they can go to a Web site
that does it for them. The Web site, www.educationforjustice.org,
lists more than 50 topics from terrorism, refugees and the situation
in Iraq to corporate responsibility, HIV/AIDS, globalization and
the environment. Web users can click on a specific aspect of Catholic
social teaching -- just-war principles, human dignity, option
for the poor, rights and responsibilities or care for creation
-- to link the current news items to a specific church response.
The site is the work of the Education for Justice Project, an
outreach of the Center of Concern, a Washington-based social justice
think tank. Catholic social teaching links on the Web site provide
papal documents and bishops' statements on current issues as well
as prayers and questions for discussion.

All Catholics should know about this superb website, which has
helped thousands of Catholics become knowledgeable about Catholic
Social Teaching, an important but often neglected aspect of the
Catholic faith.

"Popular devotions have developed gradually over years,
perhaps centuries, as people sought ways of living out their faith.
They have arisen in the encounter between the Catholic faith and
the spiritual needs of a culture."

Sheila Hamil — Sheila Hamil is a Christian singer/songwriter from Wallsend,
Tyne & Wear, England. Over the last thirty years she has written
over 100 songs and has made a number of solo appearances and as
a member of the band The United Folk. All profit made from both
Sheila's and The United Folk's music has always gone to charity
at home or abroad. You can listen to a number of her songs in the Discography section of her Web site and in the Songs and Lyrics sections as well. Three of the songs available on the site are for
the Christmas seasons: Songs
from the Christmas Story Musical.

The Father Calls Your Name — Songs
by Catholic
artist Pat Bickert

1. Some Kind of Love (2.55)
2. Our Lady of Guadalupe (4:07)
3. The Father Calls Your Name (3:40)
4. I Am the Bread of Life (3:50)
5. Don't Be Afraid (5:25)
6. Perfect
As You Are (4:13) Play song
7. Yahweh You Are Near (4:40)
8. De Colores (3:02)
9. Our Father (3:10)
10. How Can I Keep From Singing? (3:27)